can you tell me more about this picture taken from the latest issue of the excellent GBM which is supposed to depict a WW1 commando team in camo suits (and not cheap aliens from a Corman movie). Are there any pictures to support this drawing ? I presume those are French soldiers with the "Adrian" helmet accounting for the skull crest (either that or they are Klingons!)
This appears to be based on an illustration that has been around a very long time of French soldiers wearing an early form of gas mask. Not commandos, not camo suits just plain old NBC (without the NB)
Any precise reference ? I ask this because the illustration accompanied a paragraph emphasizing the need for camouflage as pointed out in De Gaulle's "vers l'Armée de Métier". The caption said that camouflage (down to individual soldiers level) was used during WW1 for raiding parties "see picture". BGM being an excellent magazine I would like to return to them your explanations but I need some reference, not just "as seen on landships forum" as good as it is ....
I'm not familiar with this... but I do recall a picture of a prisoner Turkish sniper disguised as a bush (no, not the presidents) in a sort of makeshift Ghilie Dhu suit.
JCC, you are right. These are French (as you can see they use a tipically French Rifle). I have seen pictures of such equipment in a book, but I can't remember exactly at the moment wether it was a Trench Raiders Night Raid suit or a Kind of Winter Camo suit for the Argonnes.
It is not a type of gas mask - as you can see that one of the mouth holes is open. Also a kind of early NBC suit does not make sense. Gas used in WW1 was totaly different to modern chemical weapons. Today you need such a NBC suit, because a lot of the used gases can poisen you through your skin. In WW1 they used to have gas which poisend you through breathing in.
btw: sorry for maybe very worth English today - it seems that I caught a "Wiesn" cold and can't concentrate good enough today.
You mistake my ill conceived attempt at humour - I Said NBC without the N&B. In fact a number of Gas masks existed very much like the one in the drawing. Put on one of these over an Adrian helmet and you get something very like the artists impression (which if examined shows them wearing the mask over a standard French Great Coat!.
BTW by the end of the war gases were being used which were exactly like some modern gases and could poison through skin contact - mustard gas and some nerve gases for example
PS Hot water, whiskey, honey and lemon all stirred together if not an infalible cure for a cold makes having one almost worth it
I realized what you wrote about NBC and I know very well the difference. And yes you are right: there were gasmasks existing like you show them on the pictures (btw: seems that all of them are early British ones?). But these were never worn over the helmet - they were never made for this. It also makes sense to put the helmet over the mask not under it. Coming back to the drawing: I seems to me that the holes for the eyes and the mouth are open, not closed.
Please take my apollogies but I don't think that the coat is a standard French Great Coat. It doesn't have a collar; buttons are hidden; no epaulettes & no pockets and it is to long. Please don't mind me. I don't want to start a discussion about the different models the French used, because I know that some of them could meet in 1 or 2 points the coat shown in the picture, but not in total.
So I think it is a kind of camo suit, but maybe I am wrong.
Thanks for the receipt. Now I know what I am missing all the time in my new flat: good whiskey (oh how I miss it working for an UK company and having meetings in London).
The same point might be made about wearing any kind of hood over a helmet. Lets face it this is a drawing not a photo, we don't know if its from life or something the artist was told about, how faithful to detail the artist was etc etc. I have seen it before and from memory it was in connection with gas - I'm still trying to remember where I saw it!
This is a drawing : yes just my point : is there any backing for such a drawing in photo-form ? The ear holes are strangely placed , the hood seems carried above a helmet , etc... there are a number of "curious" details that seem to suggest this is more fantasy than reality .... And it DOES look fantastic. So I wonder if this is drawing from an Illustration or other newspaper report or something from a Jean de la Hire or other inter-war author's novel ????
